Sheri’s Comments (group member since Jul 25, 2016)

Sheri’s comments from the EPBOT Readers group.

Haha, I'd started my post but had to go for a meeting. Didn't see you'd posted. I deleted it, and I'll re-add it here.

Hey everyone!

Forgot to post my update yesterday, sorry about that!

So glad it's finally getting springlike here in Michigan, it's super nice out.

This was a pretty good reading week for me.

I finished:
Injection, Vol. 2 which was really good. Computer virus that is infecting the real world. Great story and writing. Doesn't count for the challenge, but i need to break things up sometimes.

Welcome to Night Vale this is my book with multiple authors. I hadn't listened to any of the podcasts prior to reading this, but I didn't feel like it mattered much. I figured everything out well enough. I did go and listen to the first five or so, will probably poke at it here and there. Reminds me of a bit lighter-hearted Nightside.


Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Book set in the wilderness. I had mixed feelings. It was an interesting read, and fast. But I couldn't help but think the lady is an idiot, and that she used up ever bit of luck in her entire life in not dying or being seriously injured along her journey. I mean more power to people who are into the whole multi-month hiking thing, but I'd like to think real hikers do things like train, and prepare, and make sure they can actually carry their packs etc. Check weather conditions of the trail you're hiking. Basic common sense safety things, you know?

Nimona - Book on my TBR list for far too long. I bought the digital version of this on sale ages ago and kept forgetting to read it. Partly because most my graphic novels I get from humble bundles or comixology, so use Comic Zeal or Comixology app to read. This one I bought from amazon directly and it got sent to my ipad kindle app. Just kept forgetting it was there. I saw someone else on goodreads reading it and remembered "oh yeah! i have that!" It's really good. I find it fun when you get protagonists that are nominally the villains.

The Wee Free Men book recommended by an author you love. I wasn't entirely sure how to go about this prompt. I checked Mercedes Lackey's site and social stuff, I didn't see a handy link of "books I recommend". And it's not like I am personal friends of my beloved authors to ask them for recommendations. So finally I recalled that Patrick Rothfuss is really active on goodreads. I'd read a lot of the stuff he had reviewed recently, but he has a shelf called "books I'd blurb" that are all things he rated 5 stars. I figured if he'd blurb them, and he gave them 5 stars, that counts as a recommendation. I picked this one because I hadn't read it, but I own it. I read some Pratchett when I was younger, but then it just got expensive trying to keep up with his massive catalogue so kind of stopped. Now with digital stuff being cheaper/available through library, it's easier to try to catch up on ground. Also, now Tiffany Aching is my favorite Pratchett character.

Tuesdays at the Castle - book with a day of the week or month in the title. This was a fun little read, maybe a bit young. I'd say it was more aimed for middle schoolers than YA. I enjoyed it though. I'd probably finish the series if I found them available. I liked Princess Cellie, even if I'm dubious as to her acting anything remotely like an eleven year old.

Currently reading: The Dragon and the Unicorn which will be my book involving a mythological creature. I picked up the unicorn humble bundle going on right now, so this was a pretty easy prompt to fill. Kind of frustrated with this kindle edition though. I'm almost wondering if i should delete it and try to re-ad it. The title's just a string of numbers and the formatting is totally off. Random page breaks mid sentence and the chapters aren't being properly delineated. It just makes it hard to follow, the text isn't flowing in a logical faction. Extra annoying because I'm pretty sure I owned this book at some point, but I couldn't find it on my bookshelf. Oh well. The story is interesting so far, enough that I'm going to stick it out.

This puts me at 37/52 for popsugar. I think I decided to just focus on popsugar now, and I'll finish bookriot after, unless something can double-dip.

How's everyone else doing?

I feel like there's a lot of sci-fi authors who claim their work isn't sci-fi for fear of being dismissed as genre writers. I know Ursula K Le Guin's struggled to not be lumped in with sci-fi genre writers, trying to have her works be seen as literature. Maybe it stems back from the pulp days where a lot of sci fi was about men with laser guns shooting aliens on the moon or whatever. So writers who want to be taken seriously try to distance themselves from the label?

Earlier I read Lizard Radio, and the author said they were surprised that some people labeled their work sci-fi. But it fit really well into the whole dystopian literature trend, followed a lot of the established tropes.

Genevieve, I actually started the pot cast before I even finished the book, haha. I like it so far, about 5 episodes in.

Hi Sara, glad you enjoy the conversations!

That's cool that you kept with the challenge, even into this year!

And it's totally valid to read books that don't fit a challenge. The challenges are supposed to be fun, and to get you reading more. That doesn't happen if you start resenting the challenge because it's keeping you from reading something you really want to. :)

Also for the Ready Player One discussion, it's very informal. It's totally fine if you want to post something simple like "I liked/didn't like it because____". No worries about coming up with deep and meaningful insights!

Handmaid's Tale is really good, although can be a really uncomfortable read. Still worth doing, though.

Susan, hope you are enjoying good omens! I really love it, myself.

I think the general consensus for book club was unmentionables for the next book, so you're ahead of the game there!

Kristi, I also recently discovered Mira Grant, with Feed. It was the first Newsflesh book. I've been reading Seanan MacGuire for years, didn't realize she had an alter ego. I liked it a lot, but I think I need print for the rest. Hearing people read the difficult parts was upsetting, I want to be able to skim if necessary.

Oryx and crate is on my holds list, so I guess we'll see. If I can't get through it I'll accept she's just an author that I like exactly one book from.

Kristi, I just recently discovered Mira Grant too! I actually have been reading

I work from home, so I don't have commutes or anything. So I generally end up with an hour or more in the morning, an hour at lunch, I read while my husband cooks and while we eat. )we chat other times). Plus at work a lot of times I end up having down time if I'm waiting for files to upload or things to load etc. plus I'm a fast reader, so that reading time is pretty productive. I also have no kids to take up time.

Hi Susan! Glad you are enjoying following! :D and no worries, I know I read an abnormal amount.

Oh, good to know that about Surfacing. I'd actually put a request in for that at my library, because I wanted a book about women in the wilderness for that prompt. Surfacing came up when I was googling for titles. (It just seems like most wilderness books tend to be about men going off and roughing it. I just wanted something different than that) It sounds like maybe your choice is more what I'm looking for. Or at least one of the other options listed.

Also good to know about the Oryx and Crate because it was recommended to me, and I'm #1 on the waiting list for it. but after Blind Assassin, I've been feeling wary about it. Relieved that Nightvale came up first.

Hi everyone!

Hope everyone's reading is going well!

I had a lackluster reading week this week. I spent most of it on The Blind Assassin . It was Easter weekend and I had house guests, and got roped into hosting dinner for Easter last second. But a lot of it was just that I really wasn't feeling it. I know I should probably just learn to let it go and leave books as DNF. But it had great reviews and it's Margaret Atwood so I kept plugging away waiting for it to improve. I guessed the big twist less than halfway through, so the ending was just kind of a letdown.

Last night once I finished, I rewarded myself by reading Adulthood Is a Myth which was recommended to me by my librarian friend. I'd been saving it for when I needed a break or was in a slump, so I figured now was a good time.

Currently i'm reading Injection, Vol. 2 which I'll probably finish at lunch. Taking a break with it, too. It's a good comic, about a virus that distorts reality and the people who created it.

A new library book just came up this morning so I'll start that next, Welcome to Night Vale. It'll be my book with multiple authors. I haven't gotten into the podcast, so hopefully I can still get something out of it. It looks like from the description it's more of a stand alone mystery in the universe.

I also realized that a book I read a few weeks ago, Heartache came out this year so I can move it to that prompt.

I'm now at 32/52

How's everyone else doing? (by everyone I'm looking at you Stephanie, since you're the main person who also posts ;) )

Glad you like the posts Stephanie! I admittedly do it for my own record, to keep me accountable. I also post on pop sugars group, but that one is big. It's easy to miss whether someone's checked in, or to really appreciate everyone's postings.

I'm glad I already have a disability boom picked out, that one sounds terrible! (I'm going to read the second Arcadia project book. The main character is a double amputee with borderline personality disorder, so I figure that counts )

Hi everyone!

This week I finished:

Norse Mythology - Book by person I admire, because Neil Gaiman is awesome. It was a fun, fast read.

Code Name Verity - Espionage thriller. I really liked this one. It was a great story about a woman pilot and woman spy who were best friends working during WW2. Fictional, but the author tried to make it authentic and as plausible as she could manage. There were some women spies, there were some women pilots etc.

Feed - author using pseudonym - Mira Grant is the pseudonym for Seanan MacGuire. It was a good book, but the library only had audiobook. It was hard to listen to in a lot of places, and I think if I continue I'll find it in print first. I like being able to skim if something is too gory or disturbing.

Currently reading: The Blind Assassin which will be my story within a story.

How's everyone's reading going?

I think I'm willing to forgive plot holes like that that if it's soft sci do, which this is. Or it could just be that those didn't tweak my bs meter bad enough to upset me. Since I fully admit I really really disliked allegiant in part because of her bs "genetics" band aid for all the stuff she didn't think about enough.

It's entirely possible that if I read it again I'd suddenly see them all and get mad.

I haven't tried the golbriath. but my problem with Casual Vacancy wasn't the writing, or that the characters had depth. They were just all unappealing. Sure they might be well written, but I didn't root for anyone and I didn't care what happened to anyone. I barely managed to finish. It's the same problem I had with Wuthering Heights. I can't really get into a story if I don't care about anyone in it. I'm sure the actual writing and everything was fine, it just wasn't enjoyable for me.

I actually hated Casual Vacancy enough that I haven't bothered reading any of her non-Harry Potter work, like the golbraith stuff. I just...hated all the characters in it. The only one who seemed halfway decent was the guy who died in the first few pages.

Yeah, I'm guessing that's what happened. Also plot-wise it could be justified in that the egg was supposed to be hard to find. Why would important pieces of it be contained in the most accessible of the pop culture that anyone might be able to understand? The point was to reward people who burrowed down into the minutia

Sara, I noticed that too. I actually kind of wondered if he cherry picked his references for brands unlikely to fuss about being named dropped in a novel without securing rights? Or maybe he just didn't want to be too obvious and go for blatant references? It's now being a little fuzzy for me since I've read so much since that book, but I don't remember a bunch of Star Wars or Star Trek references either. Maybe Halliday was supposed to be a sort of pop culture snob, ignoring the bigger stuff in favor of lesser known references.

I liked the book, overall. I didn't have the problems getting through it that most people had. I think it remind me a lot of Snow Crash, which is one of my favorites.

I initially was kind of bumming about reading it at this time, even though I voted for it, just due to the current state of affairs in our country. So reading about a sort of dystopian future where the climate went out control and the planet was dying and people were struggling and sinking into a virtual world to escape the hell that was real life was kind of distressing. But I was able to get into it enough that while it was still upsetting, I enjoyed the story told.

I admit that I am also a sucker for an underdog story, and the fact that Wade ends up being a pretty decent guy when all is said and done didn't hurt. Even if in the middle he might have been something of a jerk, he came through for his friends in the end. I suppose I also relate to him as a socially awkward introvert. I've gotten better as I got older, but there was a point in early college where I was closer to my online friends than any I knew in person. And in that time period I spent way more time online than was probably healthy.

If there's a general consensus that people are for that, I'm cool with it. Aside from it not being available in my digital library, boo. But it seems to be available at the physical one.